Idaho pastor defends church members held in Haiti

* American citizen Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, right, speaks as Nicole Lankford, 18, of Middleton, Idaho, left, and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho, center, look on during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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* American citizen Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, right, speaks as Nicole Lankford, 18, of Middleton, Idaho, left, and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho, center, look on during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
/ AP

* American citizens pose for a photo at police headquarters in the international airport of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. In the front row from left to right are Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho, Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, Nicole Lankford, 18, of Middleton, Idaho, and in the back row from left to right are Steve McMullen, 56, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Jim Allen, 47, of Amarillo, Texas, Silas Thompson, 19, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Paul Thompson, 43, hometown unknown, and Drew Culborth, 34, of Topeka, Kansas. The names of the two Americans not pictured are unknown. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)— AP

* American citizens pose for a photo at police headquarters in the international airport of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. In the front row from left to right are Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho, Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, Nicole Lankford, 18, of Middleton, Idaho, and in the back row from left to right are Steve McMullen, 56, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Jim Allen, 47, of Amarillo, Texas, Silas Thompson, 19, of Twin Falls, Idaho, Paul Thompson, 43, hometown unknown, and Drew Culborth, 34, of Topeka, Kansas. The names of the two Americans not pictured are unknown. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
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American citizens Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, right, and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho gesture as they speak with the Associated Press at the Haitian police headquarters in the international airport of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)— AP

American citizens Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, right, and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridien, Idaho gesture as they speak with the Associated Press at the Haitian police headquarters in the international airport of Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
/ AP

* American citizen Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, speaks as Nicole Lankford, left, 18, of Middleton, Idaho and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridian, Idaho listen during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)— AP

* American citizen Laura Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, speaks as Nicole Lankford, left, 18, of Middleton, Idaho and Carla Thompson, 53, of Meridian, Idaho listen during an interview with the Associated Press at police headquarters at the international airport in Port-au-Prince, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2010. Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
/ AP

MERIDIAN, Idaho 
An Idaho pastor condemned child trafficking as a 'wicked and evil practice,' defending members of his congregation detained in Haiti after they tried to bus 33 children into the Dominican Republic.

Central Valley Baptist Church Senior Pastor Clint Henry told church members Sunday the Americans were trying to rescue children from an orphanage in the Haitian capital.

Officials say they lacked the proper documents when they were arrested Friday night.

The Meridian church confirmed five of the 10 Americans being held are from its congregation. Members were asked to pray for the detainees' release to be decided at a Monday hearing before a judge.

The group also included members of the Meridian congregations' sister church in Twin Falls, and people from Texas and Kansas.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Ten American Baptists were being held in the Haitian capital Sunday after trying take 33 children out of Haiti at a time of growing fears over possible child trafficking.

The church members, most from Idaho, said they were trying to rescue abandoned and traumatized children. But officials said they lacked the proper documents when they were arrested Friday night in a bus along with children from 2 months to 12 years old who had survived the catastrophic earthquake.

The group said its "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission" was an effort to help abandoned children by taking them to an orphanage across the border in the Dominican Republic.

"In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's spokeswoman, Laura Silsby, told The Associated Press at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being held pending a Monday hearing before a judge.

No charges had been filed, though Haiti's national secretary for security, Aramick Louis, said a judge had already done a preliminary investigation into the case.

The children, some of them sick and dehydrated, were taken to an orphanage run by Austrian-based SOS Children's Villages, which was trying to find their parents or close relatives, said a spokesman there, George Willeit.

"One child, an 8- or 9-year-old, said she thought she was going to some sort of summer or vacation camp in the Dominican Republic," Willeit said.

The Baptist group planned to scoop up 100 kids and take them by bus to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, that they were converting into an orphanage, Silsby told the AP.

Whether they realized it or not, these Americans - the first known to be taken into custody since the Jan. 12 quake - put themselves in the middle of a firestorm in Haiti, where government leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.

The quake apparently orphaned many children and left others separated from parents, adding to the difficulty of helping children in need while preventing exploitation of them.